Back to Live Featured Industry - Hurry Hard Records

Hurry Hard Records is an Alberta-based boutique record label and artist management company; focussed on developing sustainable careers for Canadian artists centered around studio recordings, live concert production and digital content. Since launching in 2017 Hurry Hard has been expanding operations and it’s artist roster including a notable breakout release in 2021 by Canadian alt-pop rising star VISSIA. 

Follow Hurry Hard Records on Instagram.

Hurry Hard also operates a recording production studio and artist residence, Benalto Sound in rural Alberta. The studio and residence provides creative resources to Hurry Hard artists and facilitates artist development programs such as Hurry Hard’s AB Arts Action Music Production Residency. Hurry Hard Records is distributed by Symphonic Distribution worldwide for both physical and digital audio products.

How are you preparing for the return of the live music industry?

We are excited to be in the midst of embarking on a VISSIA Canadian tour in Nov/Dec 2021 to support her album ‘With Pleasure’. In 2022, we are going to be launching an exciting new media brand with a hybrid digital/live concert element aimed at facilitating artist development on a national scale - so look for that!

What are you currently excited about in the music industry?

There is a ton of potential in Alberta to become a leader in music development in Canada; with a great deal of untapped potential and underutilized talent. The pandemic has caused a great deal of struggles for our industry but in many cases has also provided an environment conducive for artistic risk taking which for many developing artists, collectives and companies has allowed for unprecedented growth and development during this time. There have also been some positive signs in Canadian content regulation reform which we believe is the needed game changer to provide a more robust and inclusive path to music career development in the digital age.

What is the greatest challenge you face currently, and how can other industry and artists partners help?

It is our belief that the developing generation of artists and creatives should be at the forefront of industry and business activities. Governmental and institutional policy reform is needed to simultaneously create the conditions for attracting increased private investment in addition to sustainable solutions for grassroots artist development. We support the development of an artist guaranteed liveable income program in the absence of a more general population wide program. Unfortunately, there are many active organizational policies in both Alberta and Canada that create barriers to Artist-run companies and essentially block Artist-run, Artist-collectives, or Artist/Industry/Investor business partnerships from being sustainably competitive in the industry. For example in Alberta; Alberta Media fund has ruled companies are in-eligible for consideration of funding if active Artists are on the Company Board or have any percentage ownership in the business - newly minted programs at FACTOR have similar regulations that appear to target Artist-ownership and/or control. Alberta Foundation for the Arts does not recognize music producers as potential owners of Intellectual Property and therefore does not recognize music producers as Artists eligible to apply for Individual Artist funding. Similarly; AFA places barriers in music publishing by disincentivising co-writing between Alberta-based artists as this greatly affects individual artists program eligibility. Successfully modernizing Canadian music funding models and creative content regulation will allow the next generation of Canadian artists to develop international careers and maintain Canada’s reputation as a world leader in artist development.

Can you give a shout out to an artist or industry member who is also doing great things in Alberta?

The indie label Slow Weather out of Victoria, BC has an amazing roster including a couple great Alberta-based artists. This is an excellent example of the type of companies we believe our industry should be creating incentives to grow and develop on the world-scale.